NEW YORK, June 5, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) will tap $60 million from the latest round of federal New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) to drive economic development in some of the nation's most troubled communities.

The U.S. Department of Treasury today announced $3.5 billion in tax credits to 87 organizations working to jump-start business activity in poor neighborhoods. LISC received one of the largest allocations. Over the last decade, Treasury has awarded LISC nearly $840 million through the program to support projects that have created 17,000 jobs in areas reeling from unemployment and decline.

"I can't emphasize enough how important the NMTC program is to revitalizing distressed communities," said Michael Rubinger, LISC president and CEO. "It attracts capital to places known more for boarded up storefronts than for bustling business districts. And it creates good jobs for families that struggle every day to make ends meet. It is essential."

LISC uses NMTCs to support a wide range of developments, from small businesses and charter schools to manufacturing facilities, health centers and entertainment districts—all in places largely abandoned by the private market.

And these projects are critical to LISC's comprehensive approach to reviving struggling neighborhoods. In North Philadelphia, for instance, LISC used $10 million of its NMTC allocation to help finance Paseo Verde, a linchpin project that has brought affordable housing, health care, financial services, jobs and more to a chronically poor community—and further energized its move toward increasing stability. In cities like Los Angeles and Indianapolis, LISC has used the program to help entrepreneurs finance new offices, cafes and warehouses, and expand their workforce in the process.

"The remarkable thing about New Markets Tax Credits is not just the new businesses they help finance, but the way those investments lay the groundwork for additional development activity and private-sector engagement," said Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary and LISC chairman. Rubin was instrumental in helping launch the NMTC program during the Clinton Administration. "Quite simply, this program fuels the economic recovery of distressed areas," he said.

Since the program launched in 2000, it has encouraged corporate taxpayers to invest in low-income areas. The program is managed by Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; it has awarded a total of $40 billion in tax credits through a competitive process to organizations that can demonstrate the greatest local impact.

"We have a pipeline of tremendous projects that we are already reviewing," said Kevin Boes, president of New Markets Support Company LISC's affiliate for managing this program. "That means we will be able to quickly move new capital into communities to help make them better places to live, work, do business and raise families."

About LISCLISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has invested $13.8 billion to build or rehab 310,000 affordable homes and apartments and develop 51 million square feet of retail, community and educational space. Learn more about our NMTC investments at www.newmarkets.org. For more about LISC, visit www.lisc.org